SOLANA BEACH — Thanks to a shuffling of the agenda, the city may be able to expand its community grant allocations for 2012, but applicants will have to wait until January to learn whether they will be receiving funds.
During the staff reports section at the Nov. 16 meeting, organizations seeking grants were given three minutes to describe how the money would be used.
Also on the agenda at that meeting was a public hearing, during which Santa Fe Christian Schools was seeking approval to allow a tent to remain on the property for an additional four years.
Public hearings usually go before staff reports but the city manager requested the items be switched, and no one objected.
Steve Kuptz, Santa Fe Christian’s chief financial officer, spent an hour in the audience at City Hall listening as representatives from nine of the 12 organizations described why their groups should receive at least some of the $15,000 available this year through the Community Grant Program, which is partially funded by the city’s two waste haulers.
Five of the applicants were seeking funding for programs that benefit Eden Gardens residents.
“There’s a reason for everything,” Kuptz said. “We actually have a group within the school that is actively looking to further engage the community, and one of the areas that we’re focusing on is Eden Gardens.
“In my mind one of the reasons it was (changed) was for me to sit here and listen to how we can further engage,” he said.
After that meeting, school officials reached out to city staff and the organizations seeking funds for Eden Gardens programs, City Manager David Ott said.
Kids Korps USA plans to use the money for its annual summer volunteer camps for low-income children and teenagers from Eden Gardens.
Participants perform a variety of community service projects. “The biggest expense is busing,” Robin Chappelow, Kids Korps director, said.
The Boys & Girls Clubs of San Dieguito would use the money to expand its Center for a Healthy Lifestyle program to children at its Eden Gardens branch.
The Mano a Mano Foundation would like funding for a parenting program, and La Colonia de Eden Gardens, founded about 18 months ago, is seeking to stem the rise of crime and violence by providing educational, recreational and community resources, after-school programs, tutors and job opportunities.
The St. James and St. Leo Medical and Dental Program, an all-volunteer organization that provides services to the working poor with no insurance, needs money to conduct blood tests.
Santa Fe Christian has committed to donating $15,000 to those five groups, but all sides are still meeting to determine how that money will be allocated.
The school also offered to provide free busing to Kids Korps and reach out to parents who are doctors and dentists to help the St. James program.
Council members agreed to wait until Santa Fe Christian decided how it would fund the programs before making its allocations.
The city’s Clean and Green Committee has been paying $1,200 to rent a hall at Solana Beach Presbyterian Church for a major event during March, which is sustainability month.
Santa Fe Christian offered the group, which requested $2,950 for a speaker, promotional material and hall rental, free use of the school for the event.
Coast Waste Management and EDCO Waste and Recycling Services, the city’s two waste haulers, each contribute $5,000 to the Community Grant Program, which helps fund nonprofit, nongovernmental groups that serve Solana Beach and its residents. The remaining money will come from the city.
Council members unanimously agreed at the Dec. 14 meeting to grant $5,000 to the Community Resource Center for Holiday Baskets, which distributed free food and gifts to low-income families Dec. 16 to Dec. 18 at the Del Mar Fairgrounds.
They will make the remaining allocations at the next meeting Jan. 11, 2012.
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